236 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



their seeds, which is, after all, what they 

 want to do with their flowers. There is 

 another odd thing about this plant. While 

 it is just preparing to set its seed, it is still 

 carrying the fruits that matured from last 

 year's flowers. They are the urn-like ob- 

 jects scattered over the branches. Some 

 bright morning, after a frosty night, each 

 fruit will split sharply into two, and partly 

 into four. The sections will bend away 

 from each other, and under the strain of the 

 curving pod four oblong, hard seeds will 

 shoot away for eight or ten feet. This is 

 the witch-hazel's way of giving her children 

 a start in the race for life. 



THE DIVINING ROD 



Anything we do not understand we are 

 apt to attribute to the Deity or to the evil 

 one, and it seems then to need no further 

 explanation. Which of these is considered 

 the agent in the peculiar use sometimes 

 made of the witch-hazel, the name "divin- 

 ing rod" would seem to indicate. A twis 

 of this plant, rightly balanced, is supposed 



